That Ring
by SarahShalomDavid
Summary: It was what that ring that had pushed her to the edge. That ring that Hollis told her she had found. That ring that had been in Jethro's jacket. That ring that she wished he would give her instead. It was that ring that pushed Jenny Shepard to breaking point. She was jealous.


She sat with her head bowed and resting in her soft palms, her long red hair fell down the sides of her face and her body trembled slightly as she sobbed. Her hands wet with salty tears that had run from her beautiful emerald eyes. The cover she had up of being a strong and indestructible Director of NCIS had fallen. She sat in her leather executive chair, the sun filing in from the window behind her and making the red of her hair appear even brighter, like fire. The image flashed in her eyes, again and again. It tortured her. She couldn't get it out of her mind. Why had he chosen _her_ ?

 _The blonde colonel stood by the elevator with a huge smile on her face, her body in a camouflage outfit commissioned by the army and her arms around the silver haired senior agent of the MCRT. He had leant forward and kissed her after glancing up at Jen standing on the balcony. He had glanced at her before he kissed his girlfriend. Why? Had he purposely wanted her to see? After kissing Hollis and saying their goodbyes, she left for work and he turned to return to his desk but pausing to look up at the balcony. He frowned seeing the red headed beauty had gone._

She sighed heavily, a sigh filled with heart ache, pain and pure hurt. _It's all my fault_ she thought to herself, _I should never have left him in Paris... and now?_ she bit her lip and shook her head, her right hand sliding down to fiddle with the locket around her neck. The locket had been given to her by Jethro whilst they were in Paris, France.

 _The sun was shining down on them, they had just had a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and were walking along the streets of Paris hand in hand. Smiles were spread on both of their faces, and their eyes shone with love and adoration for each other. They had paused when a locket caught her eye but deeming it out of her price range and brushing off the idea of buying it they had continued on. That night at dinner he had pushed a black box towards her, and when she opened it her hand flung to her mouth as she gasped. It was it. It was the exact same locket she had seen in the window. He just smiled at her, a man of little words._

She cried into her hands, her heart breaking again as her mistake slapped her in the face yet again. The memory of them together and the knowledge of the fact that she chose to leave. She had left thinking she had to. She thought that it wouldn't work. She thought she needed the new job. She thought she wanted to travel. She thought she wanted to be on her own. She was wrong on all counts. She needed him. She wanted him. All because of one fact. She loved him. Loves him.

Dismissing Cynthia's protests the silver haired agent in question slung open the director's door before slamming it behind him, "You put me on extra assignments Je...", he shouted and froze when he saw her sat vulnerable, her eyes bright red, her cheeks wet and looking at him with shock in her bright green eyes, "What's wrong?" he asked, he had wanted to make her jealous to try and get a reaction out of her but this? This wasn't what he had expected at all. He had expected her to argue with him, shout at him, corner him in his basement or kiss him suddenly but to break down in her office? That somehow wasn't what he had thought would happen.

"Nothing", she said simply, "Please leave me alone, I need you on those assignments and I don't need to explain my decisions to you _Agent Gibbs_ now get out of my office" her voice got increasingly annoyed and became higher in volume

There it was. The sign she was truly upset with him. She had called him Agent Gibbs rather than Jethro.

Jethro stepped forward, grabbing a blue and white tissue box from the side he offered it to Jen, who looked at it a little taken aback and glancing up at him a little she took one of the tissues and began to wipe her face with it, "Why are you crying?" he asked, he truly was unsure of the answer. He didn't understand why she reacted this way.

She scoffed, "As if you don't know", she said with an annoyed tone in her usually soft and melodic voice, "Flaunting that _thing_ around the agency, you'd think it was some sort of whore house rather than a governmental building at the rate your going". Her voice was bitter, and the hurt showed in her eyes, voice and body language. He had never seen her this upset.

He chuckled and shook his head at her comment, "You jealous Jen?"

The red headed director stood, her posture showing anger and annoyance, "Goddamnit Jethro! Of course I am! I've loved you for the past twenty years, ever since I joined this agency and she gets to live the live I want!", she turned from him, unable to look at him, "Just leave Jethro" she said brokenly, "Please just leave, I've already made enough of a fool out of myself"

He stepped forward, walking around the mahogany desk and wrapping his arms around her smaller frame. She leaned instinctively into him, her arms going around him. She hadn't intended them to but it was her natural instinct kicking in. The scent of bourbon and sawdust filled her nostrils and she sighed with contentment for a moment, "Say something Jethro", she said looking up into his sparkling blue eyes, "Please" she half begged. She just wanted him to say something, anything.

"You want her life Jen? Really?", he asked with a raised eyebrow, not the comment or question she was hoping for but... something was better than nothing she supposed.

Jen bit her lip and with tears in the corners of her eyes which were still stinging from the salt in the tears she had been crying beforehand and were still red. Her hand came up to gently touch his cheek, "She has you Jethro", a tear fell down her face and she momentarily shut her eyes, before she pushed him away, "I would everything to be with you Jethro, leaving you was the biggest mistake of my life and it has tortured me every day since...". She took a few steps away and stood in front of the floor to ceiling windows looking out over the waters, "She's engaged to the man I have loved for over twenty years".

"She doesn't have me Jen", he said in a gruff voice as he stepped closer to her, "and I have no idea where you're getting your intelligence from but we are definitely not engaged. I think I would know if we were."

"She told me a week ago that you had a ring and were planning to propose to her. She found it in your jacket", she said simply not looking at him, "This morning she told me she was engaged"

He nodded, "So you put two and two together and figured we must be engaged". He chuckled with amusement, _Women_ he thought with a shake of his head, "She is engaged to Colonel Masters, and that ring?" he took the box from his pocket and opened it, pushing it into her view, "Is the one you liked in Paris...is the one I was going to give you" he proclaimed. "You Jen. Not her. This ring was for you. I've kept it in my pocket all of these years because I still love you Jen, for godsake I've always loved you".

She grabbed his lapel and pulled him close to her, pressing her soft red tainted lips against his in a searing kiss, "Why didn't you say something?" she said lightly slapping his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, "I would've said something...but you left" he stated with hurt in his voice.

Jen sighed, "I'm sorry Jethro" she said softly, usually his rule was never to apologise but this time? This time it was needed. She needed to say it. He needed to hear it. "I should never have left, I realised that pretty much as soon as I'd done it... by then it was too late, you would have already woken and realised I was gone. I couldn't of gotten away with saying that I went out for coffee when I had my bags with me"

"I would have forgiven you", he stated with his arms holding her tightly

She bit her lip nervously, "and now?"

He cupped her cheek, and kissed her lovingly, "Hmm... I don't know Jen", he said with a smirk

The red headed beauty smiled and leant up to kiss him again, "I'm sure I can find a way to make it up to you". She whispered into his ear, " _again and again_ "

Reconciling after so many years spent apart from each other was not going to be an easy or short process but with them? They had never truly been apart because in their hearts they always belonged to each other and on their minds the other person always stayed.


End file.
